Eugen Meindl

Eugen Meindl (16 July 1892-24 January 1951) was a General der Fallschirmtruppe of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe, commanding paratroopers (Fallschirmjagers) during World War II.

Biography
Eugen Meindl was born on 16 July 1892 in Donaueschingen in the Duchy of Baden in the German Empire (present-day Germany). He joined the Imperial German Army on 27 July 1912 and served with the artillery in World War I and joined the interwar Reichswehr ministry in 1926. In 1936 he was promoted to Major in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht and took command of the 112th Mountain Artillery Regiment in Graz, Hungary in 1939 at the start of World War II. In 1940 he transferred to the Luftwaffe and he took part in the invasion of Crete in 1941, during which he was shot in the chest while commanding a paratrooper landing. He distinguished himself in Russia and in 1943 was promoted to command the German 2nd Parachute Corps, and was sent to the Western Front. On 18 July 1944 his paratroopers, already wrecked from combat on the Normandy beaches, were defeated at St. Lo by the American 29th Infantry Division and his troops fought in Cleves and in the Reichswald during the 1945 campaigns along the Rhine against the Allies. He was captured at Wesel and held prisoner until 1947, and he died in Munich, Bavaria at the age of 58 in 1951.